The principles on which we engaged, of which the charter of our independence is the record, were sanctioned by the laws of our being, and we but obeyed them in pursuing undeviatingly the course they called for. It issued finally in that inestimable state of freedom which alone can ensure to man the enjoyment of his equal rights.

I have never conceived that having been in public life required me to belie my sentiments, or to conceal them. Opinion and the just maintenance of it shall never be a crime in my view, nor bring injury on the individual. I never will by any word or act, bow to the shrine of intolerance. I never had an opinion in politics or religion which I was afraid to own; a reserve on these subjects might have procured me more esteem from some people, but less from myself.

Nothing is so disgusting to our sex as want of cleanliness and delicacy in yours.

The only orthodox object of the institution of government is to secure the greatest degree of happiness possible to the general mass of those associated under it.

History has informed us that bodies of men as well as individuals are susceptible of the spirit of tyranny.

When we consider how much climate contributes to the happiness of our condition, by the fine sensation it excites, and the productions it is the parent of, we have reason to value highly the accident of birth in such a one as that of Virginia.

The cement of this union is in the heart blood of every American. I do not believe there is on earth a government established on so immovable a basis.